Area Democrats remain split
despite strong Obama showing
When she saw the results coming in on Tuesday night, Quiana McKenzie knew that all her work to help Barack Obama secure the Democratic presidential nomination was paying off.
McKenzie, a senior at Washington and Lee University, has been campaigning for Obama, the junior U.S. senator from Illinois, since last summer, when she worked at Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago.
In January, two days after W&L’s Mock Convention projected Hillary Clinton’s victory in the primaries, McKenzie started the “Washington and Lee University Students for Barack Obama” chapter. Now she is optimistic that the Mock Convention will be proven wrong for the second time in 60 years.
“We realized that we have a fighting chance with this nomination and with the general election,” she said.
Local Democratic Party member Margaret Whittington is not so optimistic. She believes that if Obama wins in the primaries, he will lose in the general election because of his lack of experience.
“I want the Democratic candidate who has the chance to win the election, not the one with the message that moves me,” Whittington said. “Hillary Clinton is that candidate.”
Despite Clinton’s loss in Virginia, Whittington is confident that Clinton, who represents New York in the U.S. Senate, will win the Democratic nomination and the general election. Whittington likes Obama’s message but thinks he does not have the political experience to defeat the presumptive Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain.
But one local conservative voter gives Obama a better chance at winning than Whittington does.
“I don’t think McCain has a chance to beat either of the Democratic contenders,” said Michael Wilburn, pastor of Lexington Baptist Church.
Wilburn voted for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee because he believes McCain does not represent true conservative values. Huckabee won about 40 percent of the primary votes in Virginia and narrowly defeated McCain in Rockbridge County.
But Huckabee's already slim chances to secure the nomination appeared to dim even further Thursday afternoon. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who last week suspended his campaign, was reported to be releasing his delegates to McCain.
Wilburn is concerned that McCain will lose the general election if he does not secure the conservative base.
“I'm resigned to the fact that McCain is going to be the Republican nominee,” Wilburn said. “Where does that leave a conservative voter like me? It leaves me with the choice between two candidates I don't like or not voting at all.”
Local turnout strong
for Tuesday's voting 
Produced by
Washington and Lee
journalism students.
Lead Supervisor:
Prof. Brian
Richardson
Prof. Phylissa
Mitchell
Reporting supervisors:
Prof. Doug
Cumming
Prof. Pamela Luecke
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd